The present invention relates to a braking device, particularly usable for skates which comprise an item of footgear composed of a quarter articulated to a shell which is in turn associated with a supporting frame for one or more wheels.
Currently, it is a strongly felt problem that of providing a braking device for roller skates, whether comprising an item of footgear associated with a support for two pairs of wheels arranged parallel to each other or an item of footgear associated with a supporting frame for one or more aligned wheels.
Adapted pads, usually made of rubber, are currently used. The pads are arranged at the toe or heel region of the item of footgear, and a forward or backward inclination causes the free ends of the pads to interact with the ground and thus achieve a braking action.
However, these known solutions are not satisfactory, because they require the user to rotate the item of footgear, and thus the frame associated therewith, at the toe or at the heel, and this can cause loss of balance.
As a partial solution to this drawback, U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,895 discloses a brake for skates provided with two pairs of mutually parallel wheels which acts at the rear wheels.
The brake comprises a flap associated with the item of footgear in a rearward position; a blade is associated with the flap in a rearward position and is pivoted at the supporting frame of the item of footgear.
The blade has, at its free end, a transverse element on which C-shaped elements are formed at its lateral ends. The c-shaped elements interact, following a backward rotation imparted to the flap, with the rear wheels which face them, in that they interact with the rolling surface of the wheels.
However, this solution too has drawbacks: it is in fact structurally complicated and therefore difficult to industrialize. It furthermore entails the presence of adapted springs the function whereof is to allow the flap to return to the condition in which the C-shaped elements do not interact with the wheels, this further increasing structural complexity.
Furthermore, the structural configuration of the brake causes the C-shaped elements to interact with the wheel even upon a minimal backward rotation imparted to the flap, and therefore also because of involuntary movements, this producing unwanted braking actions.
Finally, the interaction of the C-shaped element at the rolling surface of the wheels leads to their rapid wear and thus to non-optimum rolling, which necessarily entails continuous replacement of the wheels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,936 discloses a wheeled ski which is provided with a first wheel, located at the tip of the ski, and with a pair of mutually parallel tail wheels.
The ends of a pair of clamps interact with said pair of tail wheels. The clamps have to be activated by the skier through adapted cables which can be tensioned at levers which are provided on the ski-sticks.
This solution, too, intrinsically has considerable drawbacks, as it cannot be transferred to skates, since, on one hand, the presence of ski-sticks is not required for skates and, on the other hand, any cables connected to levers which can be gripped by the user would certainly create instability conditions for said user, due to the need to coordinate the movements of the legs with those of the arms.
Secondly, the presence of cables would be very dangerous, since they might accidentally catch in objects protruding from the ground or might catch in other athletes.